Tuesday, November 1, 2011

"Germany Mocked For 55-billion Euro Bank Accounts Error" (but Rheinische Post is able to get in a dig at Greece)

Poor Herr Schaeubel.

Parker
Brothers

And he gets flak.

From CNBC:

BERLIN - The German government tried to
deflect responsibility on Monday for a 55-billion euro accounting
blunder that has exposed it to charges of ridicule for being inept and
hypocritical after its steady criticism of Greek bookkeeping practices.

Finance
Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has summoned executives from the
nationalized mortgage bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) to explain how they
made a simple accounting error that ended up raising Germany's total
debt load by 55 billion euros.

Schaeuble,
in the awkward situation of being humiliated by the windfall that will
cut Germany's debt levels, will also demand answers at a Wednesday
meeting from the PwC accountancy firm that signed off on the report.

Schaeuble's
spokesman Martin Kotthaus tried to deflect any blame, saying the
ministry received a certified statement from auditors that the balance
sheets had been checked and approved. He said it was too early to tell
exactly who messed up.

"It's
annoying, to put it diplomatically, when corrections of this dimension
are necessary," said Kotthaus, who was grilled at a news conference. "We
had a certified audit of the annual accounts for 2010 and it said
everything was in order."

Kotthaus said the bank itself was responsible for its annual report.

The
German media nevertheless mocked Schaeuble, saying the 55-billion euro
accounting error put Berlin in the same category as the Greek government
for failing to report accurate figures. Inaccurate reporting of Greek
deficits contributed to the euro zone sovereign debt crisis that has hit
Europe hard.

"Incredible
but true," wrote the Rheinische Post newspaper. "The nationalized bank
HRE made a staggering 55-billion euro miscalculation. It's scandalous
that bank managers, certified public accountants and government
supervisors made an error of this dimension. This kind of sloppiness
reminds us of Greece....MORE